One Prospect the Twins Should Be Willing to Trade

Yes, and with him added to another player maybe they can get a better prospect returned the trade.

Hadn't thought about this, but yes, it makes some sense.  Hopefully, Rooker will get a chance the rest of the year to DH on a regular basis and perform as well as he did in his brief appearance last summer.  If that brightens his star, yes he may be a part of a big trade for a middle of the rotation starting pitcher.  

25 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Yes, and with him added to another player maybe they can get a better prospect returned the trade.

I bet he and Brian Duensing would fetch quite the return.

It's probably too late to trade him for anything worthwhile - he's starting to get old for a prospect, and despite the strong numbers at AAA, MLB pitchers are going to feast on him if he doesn't change his approach and drop the K% numbers. I fear he may become the next Daniel Palka.

Why trade Rooker until you’ve played him some more and give him a chance to see what he can do? He isn’t going to get us anything significant in return unless we can find a team willing to trade a blocked shortstop or pitching prospect in return for a blocked outfield/DH prospect. Seems pretty unlikely. He is worth more to us than he is to anybody else, so why trade him? I guess I could see him as the minor-league throw in to even out a different trade. I think the better thing to do is to do what they’re doing, call him up, put him in the lineup as a  DH Or outfielder and see if he can find that hitting stroke he seem to have a couple of years ago in a small sample. There’s nothing for us in trading him now so why do it.

I do think the Twins should call him up after the deadline and see how he does at the plate.  If pitcher's are still making him look silly and he can't hit anything then I say the odds he ever makes it are slim. Maybe a team needy for a 1st Baseman will see his value.  Maybe the Rays would bite.  I like Rooker and his AAA numbers are impressive but right now Mark Contraras has a 911 OPS in AAA and he is actually a plus defensive outfielder.  It just kind of seems like Rooker is in the way on the 40 man right now.

Kirilloff looks like maybe the best fit at 1st base and Sano needs to play there and Garver could play there as well.  Rooker is a liability in the outfield and I don't think he has fixed his chasing of Breaking balls low in the zone. He can play 1st but right now there are just too many guys there IMO.  I guess he could always just DH but will he ever figure out MLB pitching?  That is the question and he doesn't have much time left before he is an afterthought.

What I really like about Rooker is that he bats from the right side.  How about trade Alex K, or Larnach instead for some more pitching.  Might not be as good in the field minus one of the lefties, but could also get a better return for them.  Otherwise I see another cluster of left handed corner outfielders kind of like we have/had with Kepler, Wade, and Cave.  

51 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Brent Rooker has been called up by the Twins. 

The second part of that now is that he will just need to play, almost daily. 

Thanks, Seth.  Now he gets another chance to put his injury behind him and show us what he has.  If he can limit his K's to around 30+%, his power just might give him a nice career.  We will know a lot more come October 1.

I'm rooting for Rooker, but unless he shows he can hit an off-speed pitch at the MLB level and make more consistent contact...then he's a 4-A hitter without a defensive position. I'm all for the Twins calling him up and having him DH to see what he's got, but if I'm seeing him as a K-prone player who might not be able to hit breaking balls whose upside might be late-period Adam Dunn...he's not going to have a lot of value in trade.

I'm glad he's coming up. It's a lost season and we need a power RH bat to replace Cruz, so let's see what he's got. But even his work in AAA doesn't scream success in MLB. The power is there, but hells bells, my dude is only hitting .239 in Saint Paul. 

Have to play Rooker and Larnach the rest of season. Then make a more informed decision on both 

He has 50 major league PAs. At least give him the two months left to adjust to the big leagues. He still has another option, so there's no need to rush into moving him at a low value. If there is room on the 40 for someone like Law or Refsnyder, there is room for Rooker.

Yep. I’m completely fine trading Rooker. He’s a 1B/DH type that likely isn’t anything more than league average. Unfortunately, I think his value is lower than it was 2 years, or even a year ago. Now that we’re in this position, there’s no reason not to give him DH at bats everyday until the end of the season. If he shows promise, great, you can trade him and another prospect for an arm this offseason. I don’t foresee rooker having a long term role in minnesota, especially if Sano is still around next year. 

This is the time and test our minor leaders and prospects. I don't care what age they are or what minor league they're level they're at. Anybody over 30 that hasn't proven to be far above average is tradable and needs to be replaced by somebody younger after this colossal year of collapse

We know what we have with Sano, we aren't sure about Rooker, but I'm willing to find out if he strikes out less than rally-killing Sano. My vote; trade Sano and put Rooker in every game the rest of the season.

Rooker had an OPS of .960 and an OPS+ of 163 in his first 21 plate appearances at the MLB level last year before getting hurt and people were clamoring for him to start the season on the 26 man. He played 8 games this year and people want to release him, haha.

Playing Rooker every day is the best thing for the Twins and for Rooker. I really do expect the universal DH to be in the next CBA and when it happens, NL clubs are going to be very hungry for bats. If Rooker can even pull off an OPS above .750, there will be interest in him.

In regard to Sano, I wonder how long of a leash the Twins will give him before pulling the plug? Even if the Twins ate his entire contract, I doubt they could find a trade partner this year and I'm sure they don't want to rely on him to provide any value next year. I'm guessing the Twins will try to trade him while eating all or the majority of his contract this offseason.

4 minutes ago, Dodecahedron said:

Trade him for three Marv Throneberry baseball cards.

The Twins could totally, probably, maybe swing that... if they threw in $16MM to cover the rest of this season's salary, plus cover next year and his $2.75MM buyout for not exercising the $14MM team option in 2023. Woof. 

Three Marv Thornberry cards? Let's not get carried away.

Rooker and Sano almost look like the same type of player.  That is one too many for me.  Give me more Arraez type players that work pitchers.

32 minutes ago, beckmt said:

Rooker and Sano almost look like the same type of player.  That is one too many for me.  Give me more Arraez type players that work pitchers.

Agreed. At this point let’s give up on the Sano experiment. Let’s give Rooker the rest of the DH ab’s the rest of the season and see how he fares. Now that the trades have begun let’s get some more call ups and see what we have in the kids! Agreed though, I value Arraez as maybe the most exciting player on this team when Buxton is out. Which to this point has been pretty much his whole career

40 minutes ago, beckmt said:

Rooker and Sano almost look like the same type of player.  That is one too many for me.  Give me more Arraez type players that work pitchers.

How do you measure working pitchers? Batters that make a lot of contact? Batters that see a greater number of pitches? Batters that see a lot of strikes? Balls?